Members of the public will be encouraged to confront people who "threaten democracy" while more shop and hotel managers will be trained to deal with terrorist threats, as part of the government's new anti-terrorism strategy to be launched today.

Contest 2, billed by ministers as the most comprehensive approach to tackling terrorism by any government in the world, will also outline the continuing threat from al-Qaida-inspired groups as well as putting renewed emphasis on the extreme risks from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.

Speaking ahead of the launch, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said that there would be a greater emphasis on tackling terrorism through "civil challenge". She told Radio 4's Today programme: "Where people may not have broken the law but nevertheless act in a way that undermines our belief in this country, in democracy, in human rights, in tolerance, and free speech, there should be a challenge made to them, not through the law but through a civil challenge." She added: "We should argue back, we should make clear that those things are unacceptable. And I think that the vast majority of communities from all different religious and other backgrounds support those shared values and want to make that challenge." Smith denied that the move represented a switch in strategy but added: "It's tougher in defending the values that we share, values that terrorists seek to undermine when they attack us."

Smith said that 30,000 workers had been trained to help respond to a terror attack as part of the strategy, and said that programme would be extended to a further 30,000 people. The home secretary denied it amounted to "snooping". She said: "If terrorists want to target crowded places, the places where we live, work and play, I think it's right that we put in place, as we have done, a programme of training for the people that manage our shopping centres, pubs, restaurants, clubs and hotels. That's what we're doing to help people be vigilant of the threat from terrorism and to deal with a terrorist attack were it to happen. That's not about snooping, that's about the widest possible range of people helping to keep us safe in this country."

Experts have spent a year preparing the document to take into account lessons learnt from recent terror outrages such as the attacks in Mumbai last year, although there is not thought to be any intelligence of groups plotting to target hotels in the UK in the same way.

For the past six years, the Contest strategy has been divided into four strands – Prevent, Pursue, Protect and Prepare. These cover preventing radicalisation of potential terror recruits, disrupting terror operations, reducing the vulnerability of the UK and ensuring the country is ready for the consequences of any attack. The Prevent strand will face particular scrutiny after criticism that public money was not being well spent on discouraging extremism.

The strategy will include a section on preventing the radicalisation of Muslims. Writing in the Observer, Gordon Brown said the government's strategy was not just about training and equipping professionals, but also preventing people from becoming radicalised and better informing the public so everyone would become more vigilant.

"The approach we are taking tackles the immediate threat through the relentless pursuit of terrorists and disruption of their plots, builds up our defences against attacks and our resilience to deal with them," he said. He also said that it also "addresses the longer term causes ‑ understanding what leads people to become radicalised, so we can stop the process".

A Home Office spokesman said the new paper would take account of the way the terror threat has evolved and how the authorities were learning lessons from events.

The terrorism threat level, set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre run by the security services, has since July 2007 been "severe", which means that future terrorist attacks are highly likely but not thought to be imminent.

By 2011, Britain will be spending £3.5bn a year on counter-terrorism. The number of police deployed on counter-terror work has risen since 2003 from 1,700 to 3,000, while the security service MI5 has doubled in size over the same period. Between 2001 and 2008, almost 200 people have been convicted of terror-related offences.